A Change of Pace
by kissonmylips
Summary: Juliet Block is the queen bee of the Sophomore class at her elite private school called The Stonewood-Green Academy. Everything in her life is perfect. She has the money, the looks, and most importantly, her own clique: the Glam Clan. However, when a boy from her past returns unexpectedly, and she finds a clue about her non-existent father, Juliet's perfect life starts to unravel.


**JULIET** Block walked - no, scratch that - glided down the halls of the super-exclusive Stonewood-Green Academy, the school she attended as a sophomore. It was mid-October and her Kate Spade multi-colored pumps (which were toe-tally hawt, by the way) clicked rhythmically which each of her long, graceful strides. Behind her walked the fellow members of her Glam Clan, the elite clique at SGA. The GC were the most envied, yet the most (not so) secretly-hated girls at the school, and Juliet was their leader. They had the guys, the respect, the money, the looks, and the connections. Nobody just looked up to them. Everybody wanted to be them. Not that the GC could blame them for being jealous. Their lives were perfect (accept for a small amount of drama - but really, who doesn't have drama in high school?)

Juliet's clique included the glamorous and fashion-forward Trojan Cunningham, a girl so beautiful that boys got weak in the knees whenever she even looked their way, Athena Lewis, your modern-day Greek Goddess, Blake Rylant, the athletic tomboy who could totally pull off the completely fake-looking jet black hair she sported and still look hawt, and Madeline Smith, who preferred to be called Madie and was the textbook definition of the word "cheerleader."

Together, they were feared yet admired, hated yet loved, and absolutely, positively inseparable. Together, they were the Glam Clan.

"Rate me," Athena told the girls when they walked out the front doors before school started and sat down at their usual hangout spot (the edge of the fountain in the middle of the quad). She applied a fresh coat of her MAC lip gloss, perfecting her already impeccable lips. She stood up and made a dramatic ballet turn so her friends could get the full affect of her outfit.

Athena never wore jeans. Or pants. Or capris. Or anything other than a skirt or a dress. It was just who she was: her trademark. Kind of like how Juliet always wore obnoxiously-huge black pearl earrings or how Trojan's nails were always painted a bright red color.

"The top is a-dor-a-ble," Trojan noted, referring to Athena's navy blue Juicy Couture top. It may have been cold and October, but Athena didn't seem to mind. She was in a short-sleeved top while her friends were all in Ella Moss or Ralph Lauren sweaters.

"The off-white mini skirt goes really well with the accents in you top," Juliet told her, "and the Miu Miu flats bring the whole outfit together." Athena beamed from the compliment. "9.6," Juliet rated her.

"Def.," Madie and Blake agreed simultaneously.

Rating each other's outfits was something the girls had done back since the seventh grade. Juliet stole the idea from her mother, Massie Block, who did the same thing with her friends when they were the same age as the Glam Clan currently was. It was always important to look your best, and the ratings only helped to keep up the girls' appearances. Not that Juliet cared that much about her clothes. She knew she was beautiful, but if it wasn't for her friends and mother, she would have been perfectly content wearing Sperry's, Hollister jeans, and tops from Forever 21.

"Good," Athena thanked them. "I'm trying to look good so Matt will notice me," she admitted.

Matthew Melville, although extremely good-looking, was not the type of guy most girls would admittedly like. Especially the GC girls. He was SGA's notorious hookup master and could often be seen making out with a different girl in the hallway daily. He was the go-to guy if you wanted to make your ex-boyfriend jealous (probably the reason well over half of the male population at SGA openly hated him), or if you were having a bad day and just needed to forget about everything. Of course, the GC members had enough class and sanity not to use him as their personal boy-toy (a job position he would have happily accepted if it were ever to have been offered, which it wasn't), but he was still one of their friends, being that he was one of the most popular guys and a starter on the varsity football team as a sophomore. He may not have been captain yet, but things certainly seemed as if they were headed that way, which they should've been. He wasn't the best student or most law-abiding citizen, but Matt really was a phenomenal quarterback.

"Hellville? Seriously?" Blake accidentally blurted out. "That's the guy you've been crushing on?" Blake's comment may have been rude, but when you had been friends as long and stayed as close as they had, little things just seemed to slide past unnoticed.

"Hellville" was the name the GC had deemed Matt back in the eighth grade when his reputation had just started to really take off, and it ahb-viously stuck. Still, they all cracked up whenever the nickname was mentioned.

"Ignore her," Juliet reassured Athena. "You're in, like, three of his classes. Ahb-viously he's noticed you. You're be-yoo-ti-ful." A smile was slowly spreading on Athena's glossed lips. "Besides," Juliet added. "We're over six weeks into the school year, and how many girls have you seen him with?"

"None," Trojan answered.

"Exactly," Juliet said. "It's pretty clear he actually likes someone this year." The "it could be you" was implied.

"Yeah, but what about at parties? He very well could have been making out with some other girl and we were all too drunk to notice." Athena countered.

"He never did," she answered. "I would know, wouldn't I?" Juliet would have known. She never drank. People used to snicker behind her back about it, but like Juliet's pearls, staying sober was just a part of her. Only the Glam Clan even knew the real reason she didn't drink. In fact, staying sober was the one thing other girls never tried to copy from her. Some even wore black pearl earrings.

**JULIET'S** mother, Massie, had given birth to her straight out of high school. Her boyfriend (Massie never told Juliet the name of her father, no matter how much she begged) left her when Juliet was only four weeks old and her parents had cut off her trust fund. Massie was broke, working a full-time job to pay for her small apartment in Harlem, attended night school, and had to take care of Juliet. She was beyond stressed.

As a result, Massie began to drink. It started off slowly, maybe a beer or glass of wine a day, but it gradually got worse. By the time Juliet was eight, her mother was a full-out alcoholic. She lived with her grandparents, William and Kendra, for eight months while her mother was in rehab. As soon as Massie got out, Juliet and her moved to Brooklyn and lived in a townhouse they rented from some freaky, old lady who checked in on them every Sunday at 3 to see how they were doing.

Four years after that, when Juliet was twelve, William and Kendra died in a horrible car accident. Everything they owned went to Massie, their only daughter. Their money, their house, and their business. The two went from being poor to probably the richest people in Westchester. Massie used that money to send Juliet to OCD, the best private middle school in the area and the place where she met the Glam Clan, but then soon relapsed and started drinking again.

This time, it was worse. When Massie was drunk, she got mad, but never violent towards Juliet. Even when she wasn't drinking, she was still irritated at everything and couldn't think about anything other than her next glass of alcohol. Juliet had no choice but to send her mother back to rehab. Massie was in and out for over two years before she was finally cured. Now, she had spent her most recent fourteen months months sober, and Juliet vowed to herself that she would never to drink a single sip of alcohol.

**THE** girls gave Juliet a quick, sorrowful look, and then everyone stared at Athena as if she had just said Hermes was discontinuing their scarf line. After a few seconds, Athena giggled, realizing how absurd her last comment had been. Of course Hellville liked her. At least, he liked somebody. He hadn't had a hookup with any girl yet this year. She gave Juliet a hug.

"Thanks, Jules. You really are the best, you know?"

And Juliet did know. She prided herself in being kind and thoughtful towards everyone, including the WFDs (Walking Fashion Disasters). She always put others before herself - it's what made her different from your typical alpha. She chose to use her powers for good instead of evil, and people respected her for it. No one could say the same for the rest of the GC, however. Sure, everyone respected them, but it was more of a respect out of hatred, fear, and jealousy rather than the fact that they actually liked them. Because other than Juliet, nobody actually liked the members of the Glam Clan.

"Hey there, Block," Tristan Cooper said seductively in that low, sexy voice boys used as he slid his tan, muscular arm around her slender waist.

Most people didn't know better and assumed the two were dating, but that was so not the case. Tristan was there for her when her most recent boyfriend, Theo StClair, moved halfway across the country to Illinois in the end of eight grade, and comforted her when they broke in the middle of freshman year. Tristan was the one constant in Juliet's ever-changing life, and she loved him for it like a best friend. However, she felt absolutely no romantic feeling towards him whatsoever, and he had eyes for only one girl: his girlfriend Emily Monticello. Tristan and Emily had been going out since a month after Juliet moved to town and everyone could tell they were serious. So serious, in fact, that his friends stopped making fun of him for dating a girl that went to Westchester Public High - a school lower in the rankings than even Abner Double-Day.

Because they went to different schools, they couldn't see each other that much during the week, but Juliet had to admire their devotion. Tristan never paid attention to the numerous girls constantly flirting with him, and she thought it would be safe to assume Emily ignored the guys at WPH. Emily was cute and nice, in a little girl sort of way. Juliet had met her at a few parties and had found no reason to hate the girl. Emily had the same fire engine red hair as Juliet and a little nose that resembled that of a pig, but it looked good on her. Her eyes were round and soft (unlike Juliet, who had developed her mother's cat-like ones) and she was constantly making sure those around her were having a good time. No wonder Tristan fell head-over-heels for the girl. They were practically genetically-programed to be together.

"Watch it, Cooper, or I may have to cut off more than just your hand," Juliet scolded. "And then I don't think Emily would be too happy with me." He comment earned a laugh from Tristan's friends who were standing right behind them.

Tristan Cooper was basically the male version of Juliet herself. Well, he was more like her counterpart. Together, the two of them ruled the sophomore class, as well as much of the freshman class. He was cocky, sexy, a smart ass, and your stereotypical jock.

The junior alpha, Kenzie Carlton, was much lower in the the social standings than Juliet, even though she was a year older. Juliet Block may have been a princess at Stonewood-Green, but Lucielle Tuckerman was the queen - the senior alpha and the true leader of the school. Everyone, including the GC, looked up to her, and Juliet was lucky enough to be one of the few able to consider Lucielle an actual friend.

Behind Tristan stood his four closest friends: Sutton, Michael, Ricky, and Matt (yes, Hellville). Sutton Hodges was his partner-in-crime, but was nowhere near as stealthy as Tristan and almost got suspended twice earlier that year. The "almost" partially coming from the fact that he was a legacy at SGA, but mostly because his parents had contributed over $200,000 to the school. Sutton played on the football team, unlike the soccer-playing Tristan, and started as wide receiver on the varsity squad. Madie was his girlfriend, but things in their relationship were starting to get rocky. People had actually started to place bets on how much longer the two would remain a couple, but nobody put their money on anything longer than a month.

To Sutton's right was Trojan's twin brother, Michael. Unfortunately, he tore his ACL at football practice two months earlier and had been out ever since. Unlike the rest of Michael's friends, he was very refined. He hardly ever acted on something spur-of-the-moment and never once had been completely wasted. He was certainly no virgin (not that any guys at SGA were), but he didn't go shouting to the world the names of the girls he "banged", or so the guys called it. Because of Michael's more discerning disposition, his friends often made fun of him or cracked jokes about it, but Michael knew he was in no threat of losing his friendship with the guys.

Hellville stood just behind Michael, and to his left should have been Ricky Thompson, but wasn't.

"Where's Ricky?" Blake asked as soon as Tristan released his hold on Juliet. The five girls looked next to Matt, where the missing boy should have been standing. Everyone knew Blake had a thing for Ricky. She never even flat-out denied her crush when people asked her about it.

"Don't know," Sutton answered, pushing his shaggy blond hair out of his face and revealing his chocolate brown eyes.

"He told me he went to meet up with Lily when we got here," Tristan offered.

Ricky was a center for the varsity soccer team, and the freshman, Lily Macabush, was his girlfriend. Well, she was at the moment. No one, not even Juliet, who knew everything about everyone, was ever exactly 100% sure what was going on with those two. One minute, they'd be a perfect, happy couple, and the next, they'd be sucking faces with two completely different people. Of course, if you gave them another week, they'd be boyfriend and girlfriend again.

"Man, that boy really has a way with his women," Matt joked, earning a few snickers from the group.

"Oh, you would know. Right, Melville?" Juliet asked in a voice so sweet that it was almost sinister. More laughter erupted. Athena, however, blushed a light shade of pink, but she doubted anyone noticed. It was chilly outside, especially with her short-sleeved top. For all the guys knew, it could have been the wind that brought the color to her face.

Lily Macabush was kind of just something to laugh at for them. She wasn't pretty and wasn't even cool enough to hand out with Stephanie Woods, the freshman alpha who was below even Kenzie. On top of that, she was mean. Not just the I'm-going-to-make-a-snide-comment-because-I-think-I'm-better-than-you mean like most girls at SGA, but the get-in-my-way-and-I'll-totally-punch-you-in-the-face mean. Not one of the nine of them could see what he saw in her, and they had secretly thought that neither could he.

Sutton leaned over to give Madie a quick peck on the lips.

"Take a walk with me," he whispered in her ear, taking her hand. She nodded and they headed in the direction of the teacher parking lot.

"Those two are so cute!" Trojan giggled.

"Ah-greed," Athena announced.

"Too bad he's probably going to break up with her."

"Blake! Stop being such a Debbie Downer! We do nawt say things like that!" Juliet scolded. "For all we know, he could be proposing to her right now!"

"Yeah, Blake!" Matt mimicked in a voice several octaves higher than his own, earning him a slap on the arm (Juliet) and a "Shove it" (Blake).

"Oh, get a life, dumbass," Trojan spoke.

"Gladly," he smirked. "Athena, come with me. I wanna talk."

Athena may have seemed indifferent on the outside with her response of "Um, okay," but Juliet could tell that she was ahb-viously beaming on the inside. When Matt lead her back into the school, she turned around to give her remaining five friends a dramatic wink without him noticing.

"You may hate the boy," Juliet started.

"But you gotta admit - the two of them are cuh-yute!" Trojan finished. The pair was cute. Because of Athena's extremely long legs, they were both exactly the same height at 5'11". Athena's golden hair was accented with natural highlights that were the same color as Matt's, and although no one could tell from behind, they had the same icy blue eyes.

"Dude, I'm gonna catch up with Phil," Michael told Tristan when Matt and Athena were out of sight. Not that Tristan cared where his friend was leaving to go to, but Tristan was the kind of person that you always told your whereabouts to. Always. And nobody knew why.

"'Kay, man," Tristan acknowledged, sharing a handshake/high-five with Michael.

"Ooh! Phil's here!" Blake squealed. Blake never squealed. Or did much of anything considered to be "girly", for that matter. Her and Trojan took off behind Michael to meet up with him.

"Jules? You coming?" Trojan asked, never fully turning around, when she realized Juliet wasn't following.

"Nah. You guys have fun, though," she insisted. They didn't move. "Go!"

Phil Lackey, although quite possibly the sexiest example of a male specimen on the entire eastern half of the U.S., had about the personality equivalent to that of a stale piece of bread. Tristan and Juliet seemed to be about the only two people who cared enough to notice. Most other people just ignored his personality (or lack thereof - probably the reason he wasn't considered to be "popular" by the people who actually mattered at SGA). All (well, most) girls lusted at him from afar, but relied on other guys to have actual crushes on. Take Blake, for example. She may have wanted to have a hot make out session with Phil, but Ricky was the one she would first ask on a date.

"So you and your girls are going to Kenzie's Halloween party on Saturday, right?" Tristan asked when it was just him and Juliet remaining.

"Of course," Juliet responded nonchalantly. "Me and my girls wouldn't miss it for the world," she added, just as a way to make fun of Tristan's word choice in his question. He didn't seem to notice.

Even though Juliet wasn't too fond of the junior alpha, she had to admit one thing: the girl sure knew how to throw a kick-ass party. Rumor even had it that her mother was paying over ten grand for a few professional bartenders. Not that it affected Juliet much.

"And what will the lovely Glam Clan be going as?" he joked.

"Well that's for us to know, "Juliet started.

Tristan finished with the, "And me to find out."

"Exactly."

"It's always a secret, isn't it?"

"Yes."

Truthfully, Juliet had no idea what to do for a costume. She had completely forgotten about the party until Tristan had just brought it up.

"Have you invited Emily yet?" Juliet asked, putting all possible costume ideas in the back of her head. She'd talk to the girls at lunch.

"No, and I'm not going to." Juliet did a double-take, but before she could question Tristan, he continued. "Em loves parties, so I'm going to surprise her by taking her. She thinks we're just going to chill in my basement watching horror movies or something."

"Aww. That's cute."

"I thought so too, but the guys made fun of me when I told them."

"Well they should make fun of you. The idea seems pretty gay," Juliet joked, earning her a playful (yet painful) punch in the arm. "I'm kidding!" she added, massaging the impact spot. "They're probably just jealous because you're in, quite possibly, the perfect relationship. Seriously." Tristan looked down and sat on the bench nearest them. "Girls love cheesy things like that," she told him before she also sat down. He still didn't say anything.

Juliet scooted closer and placed her hand on his knee in a motherly way. "Is everything alright with you guys?" she asked. Her voice was now quiet and sincere, all the joking from before had left it.

"Yeah. It's perfect." But there was no sarcasm in his voice. Were things really as bad as he had just made them seem?

"I don't understand how that's a bad thing," she reasoned, leaning back in the bench.

"But it's too perfect," he countered.

"Come again?"

"Do you know how many times we've fought?" he asked seriously, ignoring Juliet's question. She, realizing this wasn't something he really wanted her to answer, remained silent. "None!" He was now standing out of frustration and practically screaming each word he said. Juliet grabbed his hand and pulled him back down.

"Tristan, sit," she coaxed. He was seated, but his breathing was still abnormally heavy. "Just try to calm down, okay?" Juliet wondered if boys secretly PMS'd. Their mood swings were worse than an actual girl's.

A few minutes later, when Tristan was back to normal, Juliet asked him a question. "I'm still trying to understand, though." Her voice was soft and sweet, as not to agitate him again. She couldn't deal with another of his freak-outs. "Since when has not fighting been a bad thing?" He was still for a moment, trying to think of an appropriate response.

"They say getting in an argument may tear people apart, but overcoming it is what brings them closer than they were before they fought." Juliet wondered where he had heard this. Tristan wasn't the type to remember quotes, or anything, for that matter.

"Now I'm starting to think your friends were right. Are you sure you're not gay?" she joked, trying to liven the mood of the conversation.

"They never called me gay; you did," he argued, his tone also light. Juliet made a small fake laugh, but his face lost it's smile. "Seriously, Juliet. Think about it."

"That you're gay?" He didn't respond.

Obviously not.

But Tristan's comment did make Juliet think about the fighting thing. The fact that he used her entire first name pretty much did that. Tristan Cooper had never - not once - called her "Juliet". It was always "Block," or "Jules," or even the occasional "J. Blo." Remembering the last nickname made her smile.

This was a side of him that she had never seen before, this serious side, and if anything, she was afraid of it.

Thinking back to seventh grade, on Juliet's first day at OCD, before she had started the Glam Clan, Tristan got her in trouble for cheating on a math test. Although it wasn't technically a fight, getting over the fact the she had hated him the first day they met had made their friendship that would come in the future that much more powerful.

**"MR. DOUGHERTY,"** Juliet called when she received her first math test at OCD, "I never learned any of this at my old school. We're two chapters behind you and I don't think it's fair to be tested on something I wasn't taught. You agree with me, right?" Juliet used that fake, sweet voice that usually helped her get her way. However, Mr. Dougherty didn't buy it. Instead, he walked over in front of her and placed his hands on her desk.

"Do you know what isn't fair, Ms. Block?" he asked her, completely getting into her personal space.

"No, sir. I don't think I do. Care to explain?" Her voice remained just as sweet.

"It's not fair, Ms. Block, that rich little kids like you walk into the classroom like you own the place. It's not fair, Ms. Block, that the amount of money I make in a month probably wouldn't cover the cost of those pretty little shoes you've got on, there. It's not fair, Ms. Block, that I have to put up with insolent, uncontrollable, whiny little children like you all day who decide to put up a fight just because they claim not to have learned the material on the test that I know for a fact has been already covered in their past curriculum. It's not fair, Ms. Block -"

"You know what, Mr. Dougherty?" Juliet asked, cutting him off. "I think I've got the point."

"Oh? You do, now?"

"Yes, Mr. Dougherty," Juliet responded, keeping her voice calm even though her insides were boiling. "You think that just because my mother is rich means that I think I have the right to do whatever I want. Well, let me tell you something. I don't have that right. But I could. If I wanted it." Her teacher was about to say something else, but Juliet cut him off once again. "So, Mr. Dougherty, you are lucky I haven't given myself this right. And just to prove how nice I am, I'll take this test. And I'll pass it. And then, once you grade it, I hope you wipe that silly little look off your face and send it, with yourself, back to the place you came from. I hope you have a good day, Mr. Dougherty," she added as she pulled one of the test papers out of his hand and began to write down her name on the top.

That was the moment when Juliet had first gained popularity in her new school, but the moment when she first hated Tristan Cooper had still to come.

"Pssst," the guy next to her whispered once Mr. Dougherty was back at his desk checking something on the computer. "Do you want the answers?"

"From you?" she asked, looking at the boy. He was about as attractive as a seventh grader could get, with his dark brown curly hair and sickly green eyes, this boy was a catch. Unfortunately, he looked as if he could provide no help for her current problem: not flunking the text. She gave him one last look, and added, "I'd rather not."

He slid a paper out from the pocket of his school-issued pants. "Grabbed them from his desk this morning," the boy told her, unfolding the paper. "Curious, Block?"

"Intrigued, maybe," she responded, but stopped when Mr. Dougherty made an obnoxiously loud "Shhh!" sound. She lowered her voice. "What will it take for you to let me see them?" Juliet knew boys, and generosity never came without a price, no matter how old (or young) they were.

"For you? No charge," he surprised her by saying and stealthily slid the paper into her outstretched hand.

"Don't you need it first?"

"Block, please. You really underestimate me. Mine's already finished," he answered smugly.

Juliet left the answer sheet on the desk for the boy to grab when the bell rang and handed in her test. She was just about out the door when she heard Mr. Dougherty call her name.

"Ms. Block. Come here, please." She did as she was told and trudged her feet over to his desk where the boy who had let her cheat was waiting. "Mr. Cooper over here informed me that this," he showed her the paper with the test answers, "was sitting on the desk in which you were previously seated."

"I don't know what you, or Mr. Cooper, over here, are talking about." She made sure to add an unneeded emphasis on the boy's name.

"Really?" he teacher questioned. "So you're telling me that this slip of paper containing the answers to today's test was placed on that desk by someone else?"

"It's really starting to look like that's so, sir," she responded.

"For some reason, Ms. Block, I seem to be having trouble believing you."

"Mr. Dougherty," she reasoned. "I'm new here, and new students always get picked on. This just looks like one of those times when some other student was just trying to get me in trouble. I assure you, sir, that I have no recollection of ever seeing that before in my life."

"Well isn't that just dandy," he said, not trying to hide the sarcasm in his voice. "And since you seem so sure that you already know what was tested here, I'm sure you and Mr. Cooper will find no problem in joining me after school today in order to retake this test."

The boy looked as if he wanted to slit the throat of everyone who he had ever crossed paths with.

"Mr. Dougherty. That really isn't necessary. I already know everything that was on the first test. I see no point in having to redo it."

"Ms. Block. Not another word. I will be seeing the two of you here at 2:35 today in order for you to take form B. Am I clear?"

"Mr. Cooper" spoke his first word to the teacher. "Crystal." He hastily lead her out of the classroom.

"Nice work, genius. No we're both royally screwed," she told him as soon as they got into the hallway.

"I'm the genius? Block, if my memory serves me correct, as it usually does, you were the one to leave the answers on the desk."

"But you were the one who gave them to Dougherty! What were you thinking? Oh, right. You weren't!"

"Oh, come on, Block. You can't expect me not to hand them in and show Dougherty what a wonderful student I am." His voice was full of sarcasm.

"Don't flatter yourself, now."

"And just in case you didn't notice," he added, pulling her aside, "the plan backfired on me, too, so don't think you're the only one in some deep shit right now." He was so close to her that she could feel his warm breath on her cheeks. Luckily, he was interrupted when once of his friends called his name.

"Yo, Tristan! Over here!"

**THE** bell telling SGA students to get to home room had rung, causing Juliet to snap out of her momentary flashback.

"I'd better get going," Tristan told her, standing up from the bench. "Hampton will kill me if I'm late again. You know how he is."

"Yeah. I should get to where I should be too."

"Hey, Jules?"

"Yeah?"

"Sorry about that little freak out. I didn't mean to scare you, or anything."

"Please, Cooper. You could never scare me." Fine. So Juliet lied.

"Just you wait," he told her with a devilish smile as he turned away to leave.


End file.
